Following the PR update many webmasters have noticed a drop in their PR scores this week. Some have found the value of their page rank drop to zero but traffic was not hampered.
Adam Lasnik of Google will have a look into the matter. He commented at a WebmasterWorld Forums thread that “ If you've seen your PR adjusted to a non-zero number OR you've lost significant traffic, this thread does not really apply to you.
If, however, your PR has dropped to zero AND you've not seen any significant loss in traffic from Google, rest assured that this is most likely a PR-reporting (PR on Toolbar) error; while admittedly alarming at first site, it's nothing to worry about.”
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
What is the reason for the general drop in PR ranks?
This is more due to dropping of some sites back links and Google shuffling its data.
This week, on one of my sites, PR went up from 3-4. But what’s weird, for my top keyword phrase only, the site disappeared from the top 100 in Google. Early in the week, it was about # 13, by midweek, it has vanished. However, for all my secondary keyword phrases, it is doing as well as ever – plenty of page one rankings. How can the site drop like that for just one phrase, that happens to be my top phrase, when it is doing as well as ever for other phrases? And when PR goes up?
I have about 100 published sites and everyone that had page rank dropped some to 0 these sites have had rank for years. The traffic is a little down but I guess I will have to wait and see.
Something strange is going on with backlink reporting. Google Webmaster Central basically dropped backlinks for a client’s site for a couple of days two weeks ago. The backlinks came back in the reporting, but now backlinks for the site are all over the board when checking in various tools. Don’t know it that has anything to do with the toolbar PR drop my client got hit with or not, but something is weird.
My website experienced a dramatic increase. It went from 0 to 3 overnight! Really, I checked it the night before, and the next day that darn green bar was filling up. I thought it was due to my SEO etc., but perhaps I had not as much to do with this as I had hoped.
Your thoughts?
Is anyone seeing any correlation between their change in Page Rank (+ or -) and their SERPS? My went from 3 to 4, but the site dropped out of the top 100 on Google (it was # 13) for top key phrase. But still showing well for other phrases. Bizarre!
Neil,
I will say its more to do with some backlinks being discounted by Google as reciprocal or paid links. We have seen this for some of the sites.
Best is to examine the PR of those sites which link back to you and also the cache. You need to check and ensure that none of the links are from a bad neighbourhood.
Stephen,
Just to be double sure, ensure you don’t have a backlink coming from a bad neighbourhood or have recently undertaken extensive link building for these sites. These two seems to be the main reasons for decrease in PR or sites disappearing from Google rankings.
I am also noticing changes in few sites PR and drop in rankings.
D. Barkett,
You should wait for few more days. However in the meanwhile it will be wiser if you do a link audit of your backlinks.
I still don’t quite understand how backlinks can HURT you. If that’s the case, all I need to do to move up is submit my competitors to every seedy porn/casino/pharmacy site I can find…
Gilbert,
We have actually tested the theory of backlinks and yes you can actually hurt your competition with this!.(though we have not done something like this)
Its more of the sudden spur in number of links which can hurt your site. If these links are coming from same site or are too many in numbers it is known to make difference (read negative) in your rankings in Google.
However Google factors other reasons too. Its more based on how their algo continues to get refined.
Even Matt has recently stated that Google will be going after paid links. More at:
http://www.unofficialseoblog.com/2007/04/16/googles-math-hidden-links-paid-links-spam/
Please clarify Bad Neigborhood, what are the signs, what to look out for?
Navneet:
Thanks for suggestions. My site just came back after 72 hours, to right where it was. I get what you say about bad backlinks, but how could that affect the site only for my top phrase? Lots of other key phrases stayed just fine in the rankings, and this included ranking for the home page. My site is back now for its key phrase, but I am really curious about what’s going on. I have seen this before, both for me and others.
Just fyi: I have very few recips as a percentage of links, no paid links at all, no bad neighborhood. My most recent links came from About.com, the Toronto Star, and the Chicago Tribune, from columnists.
I think there is something else triggering these “disappearance,” but I don’t know what! (Maybe aliens…) BTW — what’s the best tool you suggest for Google backlink audit?
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Neil,
Yes it is strange that it will affect your site only for top phrases. But strange is the right word for Google! We have seen it for few other sites too.
All backlinks listed by you seems good. However ensure they are not from the sponsored section of these sites.
I agree with you that there is something else also (possibly a Google Bug, as Adam Lasnik has acknowledged earlier last month.
Google Webmaster Central seems to be the best way as of now to conduct a Google backlink audit. Combine it with Joe’s greasemonkey extension for firefox you can Add PageRank, Anchor Text, Link Status & NoFollow Data to Google’s Webmaster Central Link Tool. The script can be found here: http://www.joostdevalk.nl/code/greasemonkey/gwt-external-links/